I have been running FSX, and have been fairly pleased with the results - once it was fully tweaked. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to install Prepar3D v3.1 on my Sim. I installed P3D on a separate 500GB SSD and installed ORBX Global for starter scenery.
My Sim setup uses a high-end PC for FSX and P3D and a standard PC for the flight model, which is Sim-Avionics. My outside display is a three projector Optoma GT1080 warped for 220 deg on a 12' diameter screen. I drive it with a EVGA GTX980 Ti Hybrid. My display results has always been fairly nice with FSX, but P3D v3.1 turned out to be another story...
I was a bit frustrated at first with P3D, as the Settings were a bit hard to sort out. I was seeing overall dull scenery, with washed out clouds. After looking over some of the web comments on P3d v3.1, I found that others were having a similar issue, so I tried some of the "fixes" mentioned. After much experimentation, I finally found a Settings arrangement that yielded some nice display results. I thought it might be useful to list what worked for me, in case others are having a similar issue with P3D v3.1 I should also mention that I am using REX Essentials with SoftClouds.
Here are the P3D v3.1 Settings I am now using, which yield a very nice outside display.
- FXAA set for OFF
- MSAA set for 8 samples (The lower this setting, the more flickering you get)
- Anisotropic set for 16x (8x is easier on the CPU)
- Texture Resolution set for 1024 x 1024
- HDR is Checked
- Brightness = 1.20
- Bloom = 0
- Saturation = 0.90
- Volumetric is UnChecked
- Vertical Sync is UnChecked
Most of the comments I found stated that having HDR unchecked helped to solve their problem, but it did not work for me. For whatever reason, what I found to help the best was to use the FSX settings in Nvidia Inspector for use with P3D, leaving the Nvidia Control Panel settings set for Application Control. That seemed to resolve the dull, washed look, yielding very nice contrast to the scenery, but the clouds still lacked detail, being over bright. I found that with HDR checked, the biggest improvement for the clouds was to have the Bloom slider at zero. With the above changes, I am very pleased with the way P3d V3.1 displays the scenery and clouds - I especially like the clouds. I'm seeing around 30 fps with smooth scenery.
Another addition I made to the P3d setup was to try MegaSceneryEarth's Southern California 4x scenery. The results in concert with ORBX (set at a lower priority in P3D) were very nice and without any scenery conflicts. For me... I found that the new MegaScenEarth 4x scenery displays a more pleasing color contrast (subjective of course). Works great with P3D v3.1.
My setup with FSX is nice, but I think that P3D v3.1 is an improvement. I'll keep on tweaking P3D in hopes of further gains in display quality.
I would be interested in hearing what others have found in achieving the "best settings" with P3D v3.1
Mike
Great move Mike,
I think you are going to be pleased with P3D v3.1.
I'm very happy with my scenery and performance even when I lost a few frames after the North Cal and South Cal Orbx scenery installation, I may have to tweak the installation a bit more.
Congratulation Mike,
Cheers.
My upgrade to surround projection also marked the switch to P3Dv3.1 which is a true fresh start but after using v2 & v2.5 for quite a longtime, I know that Prepar3D leaves the 10 year old FSX program for dead! I've been having trouble with scenery re installs specifically Aerosoft which keeps installing Vistamare into the dll.xml but even after deleting "Vista'night'mare" P3D won't start with Aerosoft Zurich installed. Flightbeam & FSDT stuff seems to be installing ok and the Migration tool works really well. I hope to get more scenery installed soon.
The biggest shock I see in your post Mike is that you are still using SimA!! Prosim is light years ahead in functionality and stability, it is half the price too. FDS is top of the tree when it comes to hardware but SimA was overtaken as the best 737 software a long time ago. The Prosim737 forum is more of a fan club than anything else! Soon they will release their A320 software and I predict FDS will have to switch to Prosim to stay on top of the game!!
Hi Gwyn,
I think you misread my post, I STOP USING SIM-A OVER A YEAR AN A HALF AGO!!!!
You probably meant Mike.
No refunds given, nothing, they just stop all customer service to me for whatever the reason, I've been using Prosim since then! IS OK, NEVER BEEN HAPPIER.
CHEERS!
Oooops yeah sorry Sam, I fixed my error! Cheers Gwyn